Kristin Lunz Trujillo

Kristin Lunz Trujillo is an assistant professor of political science at Boston College. Her work examines how rurality impacts political behavior and perceptions of government. This research emphasizes that place can be a socializing factor beyond physical location. Lunz Trujillo also researches trust in science and health attitudes and behaviors, including their politicization. This work has won several awards and has been sponsored by a National Science Foundation grant. Her research has been published in a variety of academic outlets, including Nature Human Behaviour, Political Behavior, and Public Opinion Quarterly. Her work has been featured in news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. It has also been used in official guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Previously, Lunz Trujillo was an assistant professor of political science at the University of South Carolina. Before that, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute. She received her PhD in political science, with a minor in political psychology, from the University of Minnesota.

Lunz Trujillo’s project, “Understanding the Psychological Roots of Urban-Rural Division to Reduce Polarization,” explores the deep psychological roots of the urban-rural divide, challenging simplified narratives that mostly hinge on rural decline and anger. It instead aims to understand how isolation itself shapes values and political beliefs. Using this information, the project also tests strategies to bridge partisan and place-based divides.

May 2026